According to footage posted on social media and reports by the Russian state media outlet RIA, a fuel tank blew early on Saturday on Europe’s longest bridge connecting Russia to the occupied peninsula of Crimea.
Social media photos of the Kerch bridge purport to suggest that a piece of the bridge’s pavement for cars and trains has fallen into the seas below. Rail cars above are observed to be engulfed in flames.
The 19-kilometer (11-mile) long bridge, which connects Russia’s Krasnodar area with the Crimean Peninsula that it has occupied, is where the tanker was situated.
The Kerch Strait, which joins the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, is traversed by the bridge. Uncertainty surrounds the explosion’s origin
In an August interview, a top military commander from Ukraine claimed that the Kerch bridge was a viable target.
Maj. Gen. Dmytro Marchenko stated in an interview with RBC-Ukraine that “this is a necessary move in order to deprive them (Russia) of the opportunity to send reserves and replenish their soldiers from Russian territory.”
Oleg Kryunchkov, an advisor to the president of the Russian administration in the occupied Crimea, wrote on Telegram that efforts were “underway to put out the fire” and that the bridge’s “shipping arches were not harmed.”
The Kerch Strait, which is the only way to get to Ukraine’s territorial seas in the Sea of Azov, is blocked by the bridge, which not only symbolises Russia’s attempt to solidify its illegal invasion and occupation of Crimea but also hinders navigation.